E-Bangladesh

The news is very eye-catching and commensurate in terms of ‘positive Bangladesh’: recently the ministry of Industry has sent a proposal to the cabinet division for the decision to reopen three state-owned mills. The National Coordination Committee (NCC) to combat serious crimes has recommended positively on the proposal. But the outcome is not so simple, as we see that NCC recommended to handover North Bengal Paper Mills, one of these three mills to the Bangladesh army for proper maintenances and productivity!

The Daily Star, one of the critical corporate media of Bangladesh reports on 13 July, 2008[]:

According to an industry ministry proposal sent to cabinet division early this month, the NCC recommended: “In order to make the mill productive, it is necessary to hand over the mill to an organisation that is disciplined and neutral. Therefore, it will be rational to handover the mill to the Army for its revival.”

Nice Recommendation! But it is not clear why they did not make the same recommendation for the other two mills when the NCC feels that productivity comes from only ‘the disciplined and neutral organisation’ like ‘Bangladesh Army’.

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Friday is the typical day of activity of the religious political organization Jamaat-e-Islami Bangladesh. Last Friday an organization named “Jatiyo Muktijoddha Proshad” (National Freedom Fighters Front) held their annual summit in the Diploma Engineers Institute Auditorium in Dhaka. The Daily Shamokal reported that almost three-fourth of the approximate two thousand participants present were actually Jamaat-e-Islami members and this organization is a front of Jamaat-e-Islami. This organization was established only this January and its head-quarter is in the Jamaat leader Sirajul Haque’s premises in 116/2 Nayapaltan.

This is sort of an anomaly as Jamaat-e-Islami’s role during the liberation war is known to everybody and well documented . They supported the Pakistan army in killing freedom fighters and intellectuals of the country. This fact is in the way of gaining political mileage for them especially when some of their leaders are freshly sued for murder during 1971.

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Several blog posts have been written in the recent months since the Sajek incident in CHT (Chittagong Hill Tracts) followed by two well-publicised fact finding reports. These reports also brought the Kalpana Chakma campaign in the forefront, once again, reviving her cause in the public domain. While activists are mobilising, organising, speaking for justice, the establishment decided to strike again. This week, five more activists including Alakesh Chakma and Ani Bikash Chakma have been picked up by “plain clothes” security personnel. No charges have been filed; no right to an attorney; no one even knows where they have been taken. They simply disappeared. [Update: according to one unverified report, they have been released after three days of detention in an undisclosed location].

Going through the reports gave me a strange feeling. They reminded me of similar arson attacks, similar disappearances - that have taken place before. Nothing seem to have changed. Same opposing groups, same patterns of prejudice, same abuses, same cover ups. Everything is same except the year stamps. Twelve years ago it was Kalpana Chakma’s disappearance, this year it is Alakesh and Ani. Twelve years ago, the arson attacks took place near New Lalyaghona (Kalpana’s home village); this year, it is in Sajek. Twelve years ago, in that fateful month of madness prior to the national election, 38 people disappeared from Baghaichari including Kalpana; this year the number is rising with promises for more incidents like this in the coming months. As if a video scene is being replayed by someone. Even the official versions and the contrasting human rights narratives sound like distant echoes. They remind us of the outrage, still alive in our memory; they remind us of the sense of helplessness, still raw in our soul. After the noise and roars silence creeps, and in the still air I keep hearing the whisper: “impunity perpetuates injustice, . . . impunity . . . ”

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Recently the Election Commission (EC) announced that the local government polls in four city corporations and nine municipalities will be held on August 4 this year. The caretaker government will relax the Emergency Powers Rules (EPR) in respective areas to allow campaign processions and rallies.

In the mean-time one of nation’s major political parties BNP has already rejected the schedule for local-body elections and its arch rival Awami League (AL) also termed it a ‘conspiratorial and farcical move’. Jatiya Party (Ershad), one of the other small parties welcomed the decision to hold city corporation and municipality polls before parliamentary elections and urged the government to declare the schedule for Upazila elections too. It looks like the scheduled local government election will remain controversial to some political parties and individuals.

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Since 27th May , The Daily Amader Shomoy has been chronicling on irregular basis the politico-literary lore of one journalist Peer Habibur Rahman which spun an almost gratifying concurrence from AL politician Mahmudur Rahman Manna on 31st May and host of reactions from the readers. This sequel of Peer starkly exposes pervasive moral decadence and professional dishonesty that challenge our journalism profession today and how effectively they are enticing our gullible ex-revolutionaries and capricious politicians into an alliance with ex-dictators and ruling Generals to execute a grand conspiracy against democracy. The optics of these articles nurtures known adversaries of democracy and their political cohorts and brazenly assassinates the image of the mainstream political leadership and the institutions.

Mahmudur Rahman Manna, whom I knew, had the gift of amazing oratory skill and blazing revolutionary fervour which made him an iconic politician to many young activists like me in 70s. In his mercurial political trek from revolutionary nihilist to centrist AL till date, his followers always felt measurably abandoned by the leader at every turning point of the journey. In the present context when exponents of democracy should remain stead fast and united under the party banner to counter the enormous thrust of conspiracy against democratic institutions, his article appears to be anecdotal and detrimental to his own political identity. We can only hope Manna will work to overcome his political and emotional pitfalls and will be able to show his political maturity not duplicity at this critical point in time.

The reactions of the readers deftly dealt with the intentions of Peer’s articles bringing under spotlight, unlike highly publicized corruption of the politicians, the silent but rampant corruption that has plagued journalism and the tale of a pen turning into a tool of a bounty hunter.

Extra-ordinary scenes were in Dhaka yesterday as the freshly released ex Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina met with four advisers and had a telephone chat with the Chief Advisers to demand quick election in Bangladesh. She is on her way to the United States today to be received by her son in Boston.

Sheikh Hasina was arrested 11 months ago in connection with an extortion case and was sent to a sub-jail on the Jatiya Sangsad Bhaban premises. She was also charged with 14 more cases in the course of time.

The Daily Star claims:

The court orders came after a government-formed medical board examined Hasina on June 5 and recommended the next day to send her abroad for better treatment of her ear. Acting on the recommendations, the government yesterday freed her for eight weeks on parole.

According to Prothom Alo the government can cancel the decision of temporary release of Hasina (the executive order under section 401/4A of criminal act) anytime without showing any reason.

However only last Sunday (8th of June) a special court rejected the bail prayer of Sheikh Hasina in the Niko graft case.

Tacit comments in Drishtipat blog:

Sheikh Hasina has been given neither bail nor parole. The courts have exempted her from showing up in person for the trials, but absent a bail or parole, she should still be in jail. Unless there is a secret order somewhere labeling Sudha Shadhan a subjail, Sheikh Hasina is currently, de jure, a runaway from the law.

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A major power struggle occurred in the military quarters recently. A silent coup d’état is in progress in Bangladesh.

Earlier the nation witnessed scores of failed and successful, both bloody and bloodless coup d’état or mutinies since 1975. Military brought General Ziaur Rahman and General H.M. Ershad in power and their remnants are still enjoying major slice in politics.

In the current power struggle, occurs intermittently since Lieutenant General Moeen Uddin Ahmed who was catapulted into helms of affairs of the state power which was actually engineered by four ‘Khalifas’ (conspirators) on January 11, 2007 – popularly known as 1/11.

Has General Moeen been able to consolidate power? Will he be able to govern the nation at the time when political freedom is void? Who gained an upper hand in the latest power struggle? These questions are from the curious mind of enthusiastic citizens, who are cut off from real news from Bangladesh press at a moment when media is controlled by emergency rules.

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Photo: Mohammad Arifur Rahman, Credit:Mustafiz Mamun.

His eyes spoke otherwise, betraying the expressions. Mohammad Arifur Rahman put every effort to show that he was in comfort, yet the eyes divulged he was scared. And he had reasons to be! From a prodigy without any academic training, Arif went to be a National prizewinner cartoonist. Months later he was again in the news for the wrong reasons. This time he was behind the bars for a cartoon claimed to be hurting the religious sentiments of some quarter. Effigies were burnt, the editor of the renowned daily knelt down to the Mullah Chiefs begging for mercy. Arif was disowned by his employer and colleagues, but not by everyone. An international outcry brewed and soon forums started to demand his release, again he was a hero. But justice was not served. After six months of detention, Arif was finally cleared from the charges of profanity and sedition. He was free. This is the first time Arif is facing the media. He was here to tell his side of the story. The story behind the idea of that notorious cartoon and the aftermath- a ride to hell for a 24 years old boy fresh from the village.

Being the only son of a broken family who took refuge to relatives, he was obsessed with painting. It all started with drawing on the mud and sand with sticks before switching to pencils and papers. The shops in the rural area had no brush or paints, so he made them. He painted with natural colors like red, yellow and green made from leaves and fruits. Wrapping swabs or piece of clothes to a stick, he enjoyed the colorful painting. Arif used to wait for the 25th Baisakh, the birthday of Tagore. He saved every penny he could to participate in the three-day fair being held every year in Shahjadpur ‘Rabindra Kuthibari’. He rented stalls to exhibit his drawings framed with cheap woods and plastics. Interestingly he never sold any of his paintings even if people were interested in buying them. The paintings were like his children and he had satisfaction when they were praised.

The twist of fate came with an advertisement in a fun magazine. In 2004 the magazine asked its readers to send cartoons, Arif did so. This was the first time he drew a comic and it was selected. He was on cloud nine. A boy from a village had his cartoon on a National daily! Arif fall for the fame. He started drawing cartoons and sending them to all the funmags he knew. But still there were mouths to feed since the cartoons weren’t earning him money. Arif started working in a grocery shop owned by his cousin in Dhaka.

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In the recent twist of political development, the higher court ruled on the holding of parliament election and has received double thumbs-up by pro-democracy activists. The court has categorically blamed the interim government and the election commission for breach of certain clauses of state constitution.

This was indeed yet another major setback for the four-star military Generals who have purportedly installed an interim government, which tantamount to violation of the principles of non-interference in state polity. Well the verdict was an insult to injuries already inflicted by international communities. Will star-studded Generals give any heed to the verdict?

The over-zealous military general’s in a conspiracy game aborted the scheduled elections to the ninth parliament in two weeks time when they grabbed power in mid-January last year. They kicked the caretaker government legitimately formed; banned freedom of assembly, fundamental rights by imposing emergency rules and of course throttled press freedom by blanket censorship, which still exists in another form.

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Without resorting to any research jargon let me start by saying that on a number of occasions I had the opportunity to talk to ‘microcredit’ borrowers. From them, I particularly wanted to know more about microcredit and its effects on their lives. Some of the stories they told, were both enlightening and disturbing. Strangely, these stories reminded me of Shylock, the vicious money lender in Shakespeare’s Merchant of Venice. This post is generally about Microcredit and its uncritical acceptance.

No discussion on microcredit can proceed without reference to Dr Muhammad Yunus and his Grameen Bank. In my opinion, neither of them ever faced the necessary level of scrutiny as the nature of their activities would warrant. Rigorous scrutiny is essential given that Grameen Bank’s activities - which is largely corporate and commercial in nature - involve:

(a) operations in the poverty reduction sector which concerns crucial policy choices of public nature; and

(b) transactions with the borrowers (i.e., largely around and below the poverty line) whose bargaining powers are alarmingly inadequate compared to Grameen’s corporate strength. In the absence of an appropriate regulatory body or a strong consumer group balancing these uneven positions, the issue of appropriate scrutiny becomes even more pertinent.

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